Outdoor pursuits such as wildlife management and hunting are popular pastimes around the world. The controlled feeding of wildlife or wild game is a crucial aspect of wildlife management and hunting. Conventional methods of feeding wildlife or game may require that a person carry a heavy bag containing feed up a ladder to an elevated wildlife feeder and then pour the contents of the bag into the feeder. Alternatively, pulleys or winches may be used to raise a wildlife feeder from the ground to dispense controlled quantities of feed from the feeder onto the ground at predetermined times. In some applications, a wildlife feeder may be manually suspended from a tree limb or a ground-supported structure such as a tripod or other multi-legged device. Each of these techniques, however, may require that the elevated feeder be accessed using a ladder or through the physically-demanding use of pulleys and ropes. Although some ground-supported structures may utilize a winch to hoist a feeder from the ground, the winch may require considerable physical exertion and strength to operate. Therefore, use of these techniques may be very laborious, time-consuming and counterproductive. Moreover, ground-supported structures may deter wildlife from the area in which the structures are deployed and/or may be vulnerable to destruction by wildlife such as hogs or browsing cattle.
Accordingly, a hoisting apparatus which is particularly suitable for selectively raising and lowering a wildlife feeder, wild game or other heavy object may be desirable for wildlife feeding, hunting and other applications.